Our SF: Meet the first hipster in San Francisco history …

The beginning of the Our San Francisco project coincided with the arrival of a game-changing piece of research software. A few weeks ago, librarian Bill Van Niekerken informed me that we had the power to look up any Chronicle story between 1865 and 1982 with a simple keyword search, and get an immediate image of the page or article where it appeared.

There are probably ways to use this new superpower for good, but I haven’t thought of one yet. Instead I’m launching a regular series called First Word, where I find the very first time now common words like “Manhattanization,” “Silicon Valley” and “broken BART elevator” appeared in the Chronicle.

Today’s First Word: Hipster.

This week’s word was nominated by my colleague, Chronicle tech and business editor Ben Muessig. The first time hipster appeared in the Chronicle was on Dec. 1, 1946; a throwaway reference to Chicago’s jazz scene. The second time, on Aug. 12, 1948, was to announce the SF arrival of Harry “The Hipster” Gibson.

Harry the Hipster was a musician from New York, known during his stint in the San Francisco music scene for his well trimmed mustache, penchant for smoking dope on stage, self-conscious upright piano playing style and “look-at-me” musical theatrics. Here’s a snippet from the first Chronicle profile of Gibson, written by Luther Nichols on Nov. 14, 1948.

(Chronicle file)

Gibson performed with a small band at clubs including the Actor’s Lounge, Ciro’s and Say When from 1948 until 1951, playing novelty songs such as “Hypo the Psycho” and “Who Put the Benzedrine in Mrs. Murphy’s Ovaltine.” Then he was back in the mid-1950s for another long stretch, performing in clubs and appearing in a Bush Street Theater version of “Room Service” that received an early Little Man clapping as a review.

Write-ups by Chronicle columnists and music editors later mentioned on-stage marijuana use, and indeed his handout press photo (see above) appears to include a lit joint. But I found no articles mentioning an arrest or any major controversy related to love of dope. He came to town just 12 years after “Reefer Madness,” but apparently the city was already taking a libertarian approach to drugs and entertainment. Which is probably why he came here.

(Chronicle file)

The name stuck, but did it fit? While Gibson had some 21st Century hipster traits and was a bit weird for the mainstream, he arguably became too popular to be called a hipster in 2015. (And despite scouring hundreds of articles, I didn’t find one mention of him riding a fixie bike or burning artisanal candles.)

The last live appearance I could find featuring Harry the Hipster in San Francisco was 1959 at an outpost called the Airport Lounge.

He was gone after that, but had made enough of a mark to be remembered. Columnists continued to mention him for a decade. Here’s Herb Caen’s 1967 tribute:

An Aug. 10, 1967 Herb Caen column. (Chronicle file)

I found no record of a return to SF, but Harry the Hipster didn’t completely disappear.

Gibson went back to New York, reinvented himself as a rocker, then had a career resurgence after “Who Put the Benzedrine in Mrs. Murphy’s Ovaltine” and other curiosities found new listeners in the 1970s and 1980s on the Dr. Demento Show. Harry the Hipster was 75 when he died in 1991. RIP.

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A huge thanks to my colleague Ben Muessig for suggesting “hipster” as the first First Word. (Ben also comes up with some of the best lines and ideas for my Chronicle collaborations with Joe Garofoli.) If you have an idea for a First Word or any other Our San Francisco project, I take requests at phartlaub@sfchronicle.com.

PETER HARTLAUB is the pop culture critic at the San Francisco Chronicle and founder/editor of The Big Event. He takes requests. Follow him on Twitter @PeterHartlaub. Follow The Big Event on Facebook.